Friday, June 5, 2009

Flower Gardening - Fertilizer Friday!

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Afternoon y'all - it's Friday! And, that means it's Fertilizer Friday!! Except for me ... once again, I'll have to postpone mine due to downpours the past couple days. Sunday is our Blessing of the Fleet but the celebrations start today - and we'll be going on on Dad's boat Sunday, which means that I'll be soon stocking up on fresh shrimp again too ... happy dance, happy dance! So... fertilizing may have to wait till Monday - will have to see.

Wanna play? Go grab your garden sprayer, or your bucket, or your watering can, or whatever you use and get out and give those flowers a boost! If you have a garden you tend to and would like to Flaunt Your Blooms too or you're wondering what the heck I'm even talkin' about, pop on over to Tootsie's place, check out everybody's gardens and join in on the fun.

I don't have but one "new" bloomer this week - so this is some new pics of the same stuff that you've seen before and some other non-blooming plants. I thought I would also include some wider views of where this stuff is, including some of the "beds," a term I use very loosely because, well, I don't have very pretty groomed flower beds. Hopefully I'll have some new summer blooms before too long to show y'all so I won't have to keep showing the same flowers over and over.

Garden Diary - June 5, 2009

If you've been reading my blog for awhile you may remember me talking about our neighbor who lives around the block directly behind us to the south, who I caught allowing her dogs to relieve themselves on my roses when she was taking them for a walk! This is the rose bed that runs along the street in the front of my house.

In the very back of the row of roses, you can barely see the corner retaining wall I had to put up because my next door neighbors park in that area right behind it and they were digging ruts into that corner of my yard with their cars, causing a big sunken area that flooded every time it rained.

Neighbors. Ya gotta love 'em. Or not.

That's where a lot of the plants that I've mentioned in previous posts live - the Gladioulus, the Stella Daylilies, the Verbascum, one of my Hibiscus bushes. But in front of that is a row of roses. This area is the only area in my front and back yard that I could put a rose bed - meaning multiple roses in a row. There are just too many oak trees in my yard and my neighbor's yards.

On the roses, I showed you close-ups last week of most of them, but wanted to give you a shot of the bed itself when it was in bloom. Course I am constantly cutting these to bring in the house, so they come down just near about as quick as they open!

The yellow rose bushes closest to you in that first picture are two Julia Child Floribundas (buttery yellow roses). Behind Julia Child in no particular order {because I can't remember what order they are in} are some other Floribundas - Honey Bouquet (honey colored), Honey Perfume (Apricot yellow), Rainbow Sorbet (golden yellow edged in deep pink) and Queen Elizabeth (rich pink with pale pink edges) and a Hybrid Tea Rose, Chicago Peace (yellow flower with a blush of pink). All of those were planted in 2006. In 2007, I added 2 Gemini Hybrid Tea Rose plants (light pink with dark pink edges). Can ya tell I love yellow and pink??

This is another Daylily called Pardon Me that just opened. I have a couple or four of them in that front corner (retaining wall) bed.

The Bleeding Heart plant has just started blooming. It gets a bit of morning sun, but I'm wondering if I really need to move it to a spot that gets just a bit more sun.

The Canna Lily bud I showed you last week opened, but none of the others are even budding yet so this one is an early bird. Ironically, this one is in the shaded area under a tree - go figure! These are kinda special to me because they were given to me by a friend and neighbor who was thinning her's out last year. She recently and very unexpectedly passed away after having back surgery. It was one of those unfortunate accidental drug overdoses because of mixing prescription medications between what she was taking before and what was prescribed after her surgery. She was younger than me and left behind a devastated husband. She was so sweet and every time I see these I think of her.

The Bengal Tiger Cannas in my front yard have sprouted but haven't grown very tall yet and no sign of budding yet either.

The Gardenias are still blooming, though the rain does not do them any favors. When it rains they turn yellow and ugly - it just ruins the blooms. This one must've been protected or just fully opened this morning.

This is the two Pink Fountain Guara plants that I just put in this year. I had two on the east side of my house, but they aren't doing well - mostly because again... an oak tree has overshadowed that bed and it's not getting much sun anymore. This is one reason I'm always moving things around!! Anyway, these two are between the patio and the larger veggie garden where the squash plants live and tend to overshadow it!

These are English Ivy that are all over the place in my shade bed right by the front door of my house. The vine originally stretched out over those shutters - which are working hurricane shutters that shut over the windows and then bolt - but that last time we had to shutter I had to pull the vines down and they're sort of just hanging there! I plan to cut some of these off to put by that ugly shed in our back yard, but haven't gotten around to it.

I have a couple of pots of begonias in the front.

This is the new mostly shade bed that I put in this year - it's next to our other shed in the back yard. There are several varieties (3 I think?) of ferns in here, some impatiens, caladiums, a purple plant I haven't identified yet, and oh - in the foreground, those are some of the upright elephant ears I have in the backyard - I have 3 of them scattered around. On the other end is a Camellia plant that you can't see, but it's not blooming yet either. Hey.. I just realized that those tie-downs would be a great place for some of that English Ivy!!

The county came and dug out the front edge of my yard - I assume because they are about to repave the road out front - so I took down the front part of the retaining wall and decided to take this opportunity to start moving some things out of there. I relocated some of the gladiolus to the backyard where they'll get more sun. I need to plant a bunch more of these along this fence in the back if they do well here. As you see, this is the fence line that has a bunch of those yellow cannas along it. Hey! I just realized, somewhere along this fence I have planted some Lady Di Cannas too. I think they're shorter than the other Cannas - and they're sort of an apricot color. Will have to wait till they bloom before I know which is which! Anyway... the glads didn't seem bothered at all by the move...

...but as fast as they bloom, I pluck 'em and bring 'em inside to a vase!

I also relocated the Southern Charm Verbascum from there into this backyard bed - the only Verbascum I think that survived from the original bed that once was sunny and now is more shade than sun. Again, the oak trees. At first it wasn't really happy with the move {could be I forgot about it just laying in the bed, exposed and waiting to be planted for about a half hour}, but it seems to be recovering.

This bed where I'm moving all this stuff is a fairly new garden I started last year along the east wall of my backyard fence. There is a Bridal Wreath Spiraea bush, two Buttercups, two Autumn Carnation Encore Azaleas, two Woodland Phlox, several Ranunculus, two climbing rose bushes, loads of cannas and a bunch of stuff I have moved from elsewhere in the backyard - Dahlias, an Asiatic Lily, a pink Peony, a Verbena, a Phlox. The only thing blooming right now are the Buttercups and the Gladioulus.

This is the Lantana along that southern facing back wall of my house. As you see, it really likes it here where most everything else I've tried to plant can't take the heat. In fact, the brick retains the heat so well that this Lantana never died back last year through 3 freezes! On either side of the Lantana, are rose bushes I moved from somewhere else (Knock Outs, I think!). They love it here too! In the foreground is a baby banana tree that is growing off the mama that has done her job and produced bananas last year. I've pulled 4 babies off of mama and this is number 5 growing now! They are edible bananas and are called "Ice Cream," because they have a creamy taste, similar to ice cream.

This is the little garden in the middle of the yard that I call my "butterfly garden" and it's one of the few sunny spots. Of course down here that means too much sun apparently because just about every so-called "full sun" plant that I've put here besides the Butterfly Bush, Lilies and Lantana, has died and never came back. I had LOADS of Coneflower plants - which I LOVE but are pricey - in here, but only one has surfaced :( so I guess they've all died, and it's up underneath the Lantana and needs to be moved or it's not gonna survive either. There are TONS of other things that I've planted - like loads of Columbine for one - and have died here too - flowers can be so fickle in the south, I swear!! I think I'm gonna just let the Lantana and Butterfly Bush take this garden over.

And last ... thought I'd throw in a wide view of my veggie gardens just for fun even though they aren't really part of the floral scheme, because frankly THESE gardens are what are taking up all of my gardening time!! Please disregard that fact that I clearly need to do a bit of trim work around these beds where the mower will not fit. And that one of the patio umbrellas is a bit crooked. We had one of those pretty gazebos over the patio but when we tried to take it down over one of those pesky hurricanes that brushed by us last year, the top was dry-rotted and we kinda bent the dang frame all up, so we just went with umbrellas this year. They're easier to move when a hurricane threatens.

Well, that's it for this week! Hope you enjoyed the little run through my South Mississippi flower beds. I'm off to clean house!! Have a great day and a fantastic weekend everybody.

I cut all of my glads too. They just fall over if I don't. I do stake them, but unless I use rebar, they get to heavy and fall over! So I just cut them and stick them in a vase. I do that with hydrangeas too, cut them for a nice bouquet

they are all soooo pretty! you should put a board with some screws poking up...to stop those tires! lolor a huge rock that they can't drive on! as for the dogs...you can call the city and complain...in this area it is called vandalism and they get fined...I have an issue with a cat that no one knows who owns it...but it miraculously gets caught and bailed out of the pound each time we trap and take it in! It is using my beds as a litterbox and killing everything...he actually pulls out the flowers to make room to poop! I totally understand about neighbors..next time one of us catches that cat...he may end up in another town!

your gardens put my little piece of heaven on earth to shame. lol. I go more for "easy" with little to no care. We travel a lot on weekends and sometimes I come home to dried out pots :( What's a girl to do? But your flowers are absolutely beautiful and I love playing 'Fertilize Friday'.

Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures. I know what you mean about "full sun" also. Living in the tropics, plants do not like full sun at all - they prefer to be partially shaded or just the morning sun. Even herbs just can't stand the heat! Must go and fertilise LOL

Hello Mary! Thank you for coming by my blog and saying hi! Wow! Your blog has so much stuff! All those great looking recipes and the gardening! I look forward to following your space and getting to know you! I'm jealous of your easy access to shrimp and crawfish! Your roses are beautiful! That's something I have never had luck with! Disease, bugs and mildew! UGH! God Bless! Lauralu :)

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